1. Field of Industrial Application
The present invention relates to a lubricant for metallurgy (metal working). More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a lubricant for use in metal working such as cutting, grinding, drawing and wire drawing, which comprises a particular dicarboxylic acid or its amine salt or its alkali metal salt and a sulfur extreme-pressure agent.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In lubricants used for metal working, such as cutting, grinding, drawing, wire drawing, pressing, etc., an oiliness improver, an extreme pressure agent, a rust preventive, a surfactant, a preservative, an antioxidant, etc., are added to a vegetable or animal oil or fat, a mineral oil, a synthetic oil or a mixture thereof or water, and the mixture is used as such or in the form of a 1 to 30% emulsion or an aqueous solution. In recent years, with an increase in the size of various working machines, an increase in the precision and the hardness of metal materials, an increase in the speed and pressure in working conditions, an increase in the precision of a finished surface, etc., the working conditions have become more and more severe, so that the conventional lubricants for metallurgy have become impossible to cope with the use under severe conditions. For this reason, the addition of chlorine- and sulfur-containing extreme-pressure agents has become indispensable.
In recent years, however, a fear for the toxicity and carcinogenicity of the organochlorine compounds has remarkably increased. Further, a non-chlorinated lubricant has become thought to be desired also from the viewpoint of a rise in the environmental pollution problem.
Since, however, non-chlorinated lubricants which have been developed and are currently in the market (for example, JIS W No. 1, first class and JIS W No. 2, second class) are free from an extreme-pressure agent, they are unsatisfactory for use in plastic working such as high-speed and heavy cutting and drawing. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 181896/1986 discloses a water-soluble cutting oil containing polysulfide, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 149997/1983 and 139791/1985 disclose a water-soluble cutting oil containing an amine salt or an alkali metal salt of a monoester, such as an adduct of a dicarboxylic acid represented by the following general formula (I) with polyoxypropylene glycol, polyoxyethylene glycol, polyoxypropylene or the like. ##STR2## wherein R.sub.1 stands for COOH or H; and R.sub.2 stands for H when R.sub.1 is COOH, and COOH when R.sub.1 is H. These water-soluble cutting oils, however, are not yet satisfactory for use in high-speed and heavy cutting from the viewpoint of the precision and service life of the tool.
Examples of the non-chlorinated lubricating additive known in the art include a product of a reaction of an organic amine with an organic phosphoric ester or an organic phosphorous ester (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,131) and a product of a reaction of a dihydrocarbyl phosphite having 1 to 6 carbon atoms with an alkoxyamine or a vicinal diol or a product of a reaction of the dihydrocarbyl phosphite with a boron compound (diboron trioxide, boric acid, metaborate, alkyl borate or the like) (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,529,528, 4,557,845, 4,555,353, 4,532,057, and 4,522,629). They, however, lack in the extreme-pressure property for use as an additive of a lubricant for metallurgy. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 308495/1989 discloses a product of a reaction of an alkoxylated amine with an organic phosphite, a product of a reaction of an alkoxylated amine with an organic phosphite and a boron-containing compound (diboron trioxide, metaborate or an organic boron compound), etc. These reaction products, however, are not yet satisfactory in the improvement of the effect, and a further improvement has been desired in the art.